• Zero
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Topic: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

Hello everyone

I'm having trouble getting the HDSP MADI to work under Linux. I'm using the JackLab audio distribution, which is based on openSUSE.

The card is detected correctly by the system itself, but the tools hdspconf and hdspmixer seem to be having some problems.
I've tried manually changing the settings to "master" in /etc/asound.state, but I am unable to get a lock. Also, the error LED on the card is continuously red.

As suggested in a thread about a week ago, I tried downgrading to firmware version 202, but that
doesn't seem to have helped.
When I run hdspconf, I receive the message "No Hammerfall DSP card found", even though the card is listed as Card 0.
"lsmod" command shows that the module has been loaded: >snd_hdspm  37920  1

Is this most likely a distribution-related problem? Or a bug in the alsa-tools (hdspconf by Thomas Charbonnel)? I've tried contacting him, but his page undata.org seems to have disappeared years ago.

I will appreciate very much any hints you can give me. Tell me if you need more system-specific details, e.g. other config files.

Thanks in advance,
Lorenz


p.s. Some shell outputs that might be useful:

=====================================================
output of hdspconf
=====================================================

HDSPConf 1.4 - Copyright (C) 2003 Thomas Charbonnel <thomas@undata.org>
This program comes WITH ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY
HDSPConf is free software, see the file copying for details

Looking for HDSP cards :
Card 0 : RME HDSPM MADI at 0xfe7f0000, irq 16
Card 1 : Intel ICH7 with AD1981B at 0xfeabfa00, irq 22
No Hammerfall DSP card found.


=====================================================
contents of /proc/asound/card0/hdspm :
=====================================================

RME HDSPM MADI (Card #1) Rev.ca Status2first3bits: 4
IRQ: 16 Registers bus: 0xfe7f0000 VM: 0xf8fe0000
--- System ---
IRQ Pending: Audio=0, MIDI0=0, MIDI1=0, IRQcount=1369
HW pointer: id = 0, rawptr = 0 (0->1984) estimated= 0 (bytes)
MIDI FIFO: Out1=0x0, Out2=0x0, In1=0x0, In2=0x0
Register: ctrl1=0x1014c94, ctrl2=0x0, status1=0x2400014, status2=0x2400014
--- Settings ---
Size (Latency): 256 samples (2 periods of 1024 bytes)
Line out: on ,   Precise Pointer: off
Inputsel = Coaxial, SyncRef = MADI
ClearTrackMarker = off, Transmit in 64 Channel Mode, Auto Input on
Sample Clock Source: Internal 44.1 kHz
System Clock Mode: Master
Preferred Sync Reference: MADI Sync
System Clock Frequency: 44100
--- Status:
Inputs MADI=NoLock, WordClock=NoLock
AutoSync: Reference= Word Clock, Freq=0 (MADI = 9, Word = 0)
Input: Coax, Mode=56 channels

====================================
cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.6.19-5-rt (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 4.1.2 20061115 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)) #1 SMP PREEMPT Sat Nov 25 18:35:39 UTC 2006

2 Reply by MC

  • MC
  • MC
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Re: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

This forum includes a search function.

http://www.rme-audio.de/forum/viewtopic.php?id=1080

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Zero
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Re: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

Hello Matthias,

Let me quote myself:

Zero wrote:

As suggested in a thread about a week ago, I tried downgrading to firmware version 202, but that
doesn't seem to have helped.

I was referring to exactly that thread, which is the first thread I read when I first visited this forum and thouroughly used the search function. wink
Maybe I should have replied to that thread instead of creating a new one .. sorry about that.

So the problem is that, as opposed to Roman, my card did not work even after downgrading the firmware.

Kind regards,
Lorenz

4 Reply by MC

  • MC
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Re: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

Ooops, sorry, I overlooked this one. But in that case I have no clue what the problem is. You downgraded the card under Windows, means you checked that the card itself is working correctly?

Regards
Matthias Carstens
RME

MC's Website

  • Zero
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Re: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

Yes, the card works fine under Windows -- It has been running on a Windows PC for quite some time.

I will try to see if can at least modify the settings with alsactl or alsamixer--  I wonder if the hdspconf and hdspmixer utilities worked for Roman, the user who had success after downgrading the firmware.

Regards,
Lorenz

  • Roman
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Re: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

hdspconf and hdspmixer won't work, since this is a hdspM-card - the tools mentioned only work with the Hammerfall DSP cards (PCI and PCMCIA) that connect to the Multiface or Digiface.

If you indeed have downgraded to firmware version 202, everything should work fine.  With a new distribution, even newer firmware revisions should work. Remy Bruno, author of the newest Alsa-driver, based it off of the Windows drivers.  I was able to use a card with formware version 203 with a recent version of Alsa.  Only since I have a bunch of machines in a production environment I needed to downgrade some cards to make them compatible with what we have installed already.

You can use amixer or alsamixer to set volumes.  You can also use hdspmmixer by Winfried Ritsch: Winfried Ritsch's pages

  • Zero
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Re: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

Sorry for not responding for so long.. I finally found the time to give it another shot -- And it works!

1) Apparently after the firmware downgrade (I'm currently using 202), the card would lock (i.e. the led turns green) when fed from a MADI source. This was not the case with FW 205.

2) I had been on Winfried Ritsch's Site before, but I somehow thought the hdspconf utility was an "evolved" version with GUI of Winfrieds utilities. My mistake...
Now I'm using Winfried's command line utilities and it seems to work fine. I've managed to get audio from the sine generator on the headphone outputs.

A thing that still happens sometimes is that the card is "stuck" and I have to do a "Restart Sound System" in YaST (by changing some setting of the card) to get it working again.
Would anyone know which command is executed by "Restart Sound System" ? Something like "alsa restart"?

I just wanted to say thank you very much!

Lorenz

8 Reply by pepsifx357 (edited by pepsifx357 2010-05-24 01:56:55)

  • Registered: 2010-05-24
  • Posts: 2

Re: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

I am also having problems with a MADI card that I recently bought just for linux.  I can't seem to figure out the problem.  I beleive that the card is the 1.8 revision and I have no clue as to the firmware version.  I tried to downgrade using windows XP and your older firmwares, but they didn't do anything.  The card works and passes audio in linux, but the output of JACK or the MADI card are not going to their respective outputs on my SSL ALPHA MADI that I am using for analog output.  Here is an outline of the problem:

Output problem:

Here is the output matrix from the RME to the SSL, or it could be Linux to the RME, I don't know.  This is at 24bit 88.2 kHz out of Aurdour using JACKd and Patchage for routing.

Channel # = Actual # on SSL ALPHA MADI


Channel 1 = 5
Channel 2 = ?
Channel 3 = 6
Channel 4 = ?
Channel 5 = 7
Channel 6 = ?
Channel 7 = 8
Channel 8 = ?
Channel 9 = 9
Channel 10 = ?
Channel 11 = 10
Channel 12 = ?
Channel 13 = 11
Channel 14 = ?
Channel 15 = 12
Channel 16 = ?
Channel 17 = 13
Channel 18 = ?
Channel 19 = 14
Channel 20 = ?
Channel 21 = 15
Channel 22 = 23
Channel 23 = 16
Channel 24 = 24
Channel 25 = 1 and 17
Channel 26 = ?
Channel 27 = 2 and 18
Channel 28 = ?
Channel 29 = 3 and 19
Channel 30 = ?
Channel 31 = 4 and 20
Channel 32 = ?

Most of the even channels are not being routed at all, and the odd numbers are not going to the right output on the SSL ALPHA MADI.  I have no clue what is going on with this.  I've spent nearly $5,000 to get a linux audio workstation to run and it's getting rather frustrating.  I know RME doesn't officially support Linux, but c'mon, don't tease. :-)

  • Registered: 2010-05-24
  • Posts: 2

Re: HDSP MADI trouble with Linux (JackLab)

bump?